June 10 – Kootenay National Park

Today we drove through nearby Kootenay National Park. We did three short walks to some interesting features and then drove to the end and soaked in Radium Hot Springs. At each of the stops we walked under 2 km.

Previously the weather for today was supposed to be mostly sunny. It was not. It was mostly cloudy with a bit of rain when we were outside and a lot when we were driving. It did get sunny for the hot spring.

First up was Marble Canyon. It is very narrow and very deep with a rushing blue green river and a waterfall.

It was a long way down. The path wound from side to side with (I think) 5 bridges.

It was hard to get decent pictures because the canyon was so deep and dark.

The mountain looming over us had had a forest fire and it looked like it had a brush cut.

And the waterfall.

My turn.

And the river above the falls.

The photosphere.

Heading back to the car. Grey skies.

Next up was the short trail to the Paint Pots.

First, we cross the river. It seems like a way over engineered bridge for just people.

 

Then there is what seemed like a new boardwalk over a muddy bog like area.

A photosphere.

Then up beside a very red muddy stream.

The Paint Pots were three red and green pools that source the stream.

A small one.

A larger one.

And a very large one.

A photosphere.

Then back to the car.

Next was Numa Falls and Picnic Area. Lunch time.

A very short walk to the falls.

The pictures didn’t capture this falls very well.

And downstream.

From here it was a about a 50 minute drive to Radium Hot Spring. Since it was early we decided to go.

The weather up ahead started to look nasty.

Going over one high pass the rain just poured down and we almost turned back.

It was a good thing we didn’t. Once we got to the hot springs it had actually turned sunny and warm.

We soaked in the pool for about an hour. I would have liked the water to have been a bit hotter but we were still wobbly legged after we got out.

It was not very busy.

It was a beautiful drive back. we could actually see the mountains that we had missed n the rain.

Back in Banff we were very tired and we decided to eat out at a Vietnamese place. We didn’t remember where it was on the main street and it turned out to be much farther from the free parking than we really wanted to walk. We got a bowl of beef pho and a bowl of chicken vermicelli. They were so huge that we took most of the pho home.